Leinster MFC round-up: Wins for Dublin, Wexford, Longford

Dublin 5-13 Laois 1-11

Dublin made a winning start to the Leinster minor football championship as they emphatically dispatched Laois in Portlaoise this evening.

Damian Fennelly's charges were unstoppable in the first half, scoring four excellent goals and running up an 18 point lead by the time the sides headed for the changing rooms.

Laois did improve in the second half and managed to reduce the gap slightly, but the Dubs deserved headed back to the capital with the win secured.

The opening exchanges were even enough as Laois's Ultan Dunne replied twice to points from Dublin's Rian Doherty and Senan Bolger.

That was in the seventh minute and by the time Laois scored again in the 24th minute, Dublin's lead was 14 points.

Fintan Lydon and Senan Bolger rattled the Laois net in that time and points came from all over the field.

Dunne scored again for Laois and Ennae Byrne actually landed the last point of the half but in between, Dublin did more damage.

Wing forward Donach Magee scored their third goal and then wing back Josh Kennedy did likewise from a seemingly impossible angle.

Dublin headed for the dressing rooms leading 4-10 to 0-4 and Laois trudged off in an impossible situation.

Laois did improve in the second half and were rewarded somewhat for their endevour when sub Josh Finn punched a long ball from Darren Brennan to the net.

But Dublin were not about to allow Laois to mount a comeback and quashed any thought of that when Senan Bolger nabbed his second goal.

Laois continued to chip away with Dunne and sub Callum McElroy pointing before the end as they went down by 14 points.

Scorers - Laois: U Dunne 0-5 (two frees), J Finn 1-0, D Brennan and E Byrne 0-2 each, C O'Callaghan (free) and C McElroy 0-1 each. Dublin: S Bolger 2-2, R Doherty 0-5 (two frees, one mark), F Lydon and D Magee 1-1 each, J Kennedy 1-0, K Costello, F McGinnis, R Ennis and C Loughran 0-1 each.

Laois: L Conroy; C Moran, J Murphy, F O’Sullivan; D Whelan, J Julian, A Byrne; R Murphy, K O'Reilly; J O’Dea, E Byrne, D Brennan; C O’Callaghan, O Darcy, U Dunne. Subs: C McElroy for O'Reilly (20), H Connolly for Julian (28), J Finn for Darcy (ht), P Murray for O'Dea (55).

Dublin: F McDonnell; D McGill, F Costello, J O'Keeffe; J Kennedy, F McGinnis, R Ennis; C Gavin, K Costello; C Loughran, S Bolger, D Magee; R Doherty, F Lydon, H O'Neill. Subs: B Collins for McDonnell, E O'Donovan for McGill, F Donohue for Lydon (all ht), B Shouldice for Costello (44), C McCabe for Doherty (51), S Devane for Ennis (52).

Referee: L Murphy (Carlow).

Wexford 3-18 Carlow 2-11

Wexford made a great start to their challenge for Leinster minor football championship honours when they saw off the challenge of Carlow in this Group 3 tie at the SETU Carlow campus.

Right from the whistle, they brought the game to the home side and two players, Tom Funge and Odhrán Morris (free), who would go on and play key roles both scored a point a piece.

Carlow had no answers as Wexford led 0-6 to 0-1 at the end of the first quarter. Aaron Dowling looked sharp for the home side and it was he who got Carlow’s first point after 11 minutes.

When Eoin Ryan scored a home goal just before the break, the visitors still had the last say of the half with Funge scoring his second point to leave Wexford leading 0-10 to 1-2 at the interval.

A confident Funge scored Wexford’s first goal shortly after the resumption and Morris added another point. It was one-way traffic for the next 20 minutes as Abram O’Neill raised another green flag for Wexford and Darren Rossiter also converted a penalty.

Carlow could have surrendered but they hung on and enjoyed a morale boosting last ten minutes.

Cillian Molloy found the net after taking the scoring pass from Dowling. Substitute Brynn Nolan landed two frees and scored a nice point from play to narrow the gap even further.

Wexford still had the final say with Morris finding the posts from play to complete a good nights work with a personal haul of 0-10 over the hour.

Scorers – Wexford: O Morris 0-10 (7fs), T Funge 1-2 (1f), A O’Neill 1-1, D Rossiter 1-0 (pen), E Hughes, S Fitzharris, F Kavanagh, D Forde, C Power 0-1 each. Carlow: E Ryan 1-2, A Dowling 0-4 (1f), C Molloy 1-0, B Nolan 0-3 (2fs), D Byrne, I Craddock 0-1 each.

Wexford: J Gallagher, K Steadmond, L Kenny, S Fitzharris, R Cooper, E Hughes, F Kavanagh, T Funge, J Rothwell, D Forde, O Morris, J Hughes, I Noctor, D Rossiter, A O’Neill. Subs: C Power for Rothwell (44), A Kelly for O’Neill (44), M Cullen for Kavanagh (49), B Furlong for Cooper (52), R Wycherley for Hughes (52).

Carlow: J Hogan, E Breen, R Moran, D Ruane, D Byrne, D Corcoran, L O’Connor, J Keating, R McCaffrey, J Curran, I Craddock, M Byrne, E Ryan, A Dowling, D Lawler. Subs: B Nolan for Lawler (34), D Burrows for Ruane (34), M Buggy for Corcoran (40), C Molloy for Ryan (48), A Cleary for Curran (52).

Referee: P Dunne (Laois).

Longford 2-13 Offaly 1-9

An impressive Longford side had a convincing win over Offaly in Kilcormac's Faithful Fields on Wednesday evening.

The visitors were the better side by a distance on the day and were in no way flattered by their facile winning margin. Offaly's goal was a consolation one five minutes from time, a Senan Hanniffy penalty and the game was well gone from them at that stage.

Longford's attack was on fire in the first half and they were in control when they went in leading by 2-5 to 0-5 at half time after playing with a strong wind.

They made the perfect start with a quality Cian O'Donnell goal in the third minute and a second three pointer from James Hagan gave them a 2-4 to 0-1 lead in the 15th minute.

Offaly did better in the second quarter, outscoring them by 0-4 to 0-1. Their first score from play was from Cian McNamee in the 23rd minute and he added a second three mintues later. Cian O'Donnell's point gave Longford that two goal interval lead.

In the second half, Longford adapted a “what we have we will hold policy” but they were still very good when they did break forward.

They were 2-12 to 0-7 ahead when Offaly got their penalty and will be very happy with their display.

Scorers – Longford: C O'Donnell 1-4 (1f), J Hagan 1-3 1f), S Fagan, J Shannon, K O'Hara, B Blessington, K Hudson and L Greene 0-1 each. Offaly: C McNamee 0-5 (2f), S Hanniffy 1-0 (p), M Bryant 0-2 (1m and 1`f), L Moore and E Maher 0-1 each.

Offaly: J Ryan; C Daly, A Fox, Conor Egan; L Fitzgerald, P Kenna, T Kelly; E Rouse, C Burns; E Cullen, S Horkan, S Wyer; D Dunne, M Bryant, C McNamee. Subs: L Moore for Cullen (HT), Colm Egan for Horkan (HT), S Hanniffy for Dunne (37m), E Maher for Wyer (50m), D Sullivan for McNamee, inj. (61m).

Longford: J Ross; A Mimnagh, C McHugh, D Mulligan; C Doherty, M Cooney, C Flynn; S Fagan, P Farrell; O Kane, C O'Donnell, J Shannon; K O'Hara, J Marsh, J Hagan. Subs: L Greene for Kane (29m), J Finnegan for Shannon (43m), K Hudson for O'Hara (46m), B Blesington for Farrell (52m).

Referee: E Kenny.